Many consider a trip to Iceland in the winter a crazy idea. They say it is cold, dark and expensive. All true. But it is also a unique and dynamic vacation destination — and going in the winter is not all that crazy.

There are no sandtraps in Shangrila, but par is about as elusive as it is in Pinehurst. If this strikes you as dogma, then you should consult those hardy sportsmen who have sampled the snares and the gremlins which haunt the U.S. Navy's notorious nine holes in Iceland.

It’s still impressive some 2,000 years later, from its intact brick arches to the dark warren of underground passages. But the ancient Roman amphitheater in this southern Italian city near Naples is also noteworthy for what it replaced when it was built in the first century A.D. — the combat arena once stalked by Spartacus, the famed gladiator whose massive slave revolt threatened Rome itself.